Richdg

Just because guys don't fight or do it very much doesn't mean they are not gritty. All of the guys listed are Abby size or bigger and most if not all hit more than he does. They all go to the corners, in front of the net etc... Also, like I mentioned before all can skate. last thing, most of these guys are not going to cost an arm and a leg to get. Reasonable trade can be made. You also never know what they can develop into. a 23 year martin that has always been on a checking line could develop into a 20+ goal scorer playing with a guy like Datsyuk.

dirty-yes but they need scoring 9-no. greening was 12th in hits this past season for forwards. Frank-thanks. TBH we could very much use a loose cannon or 2 around the RW's. far to much passivity and civility at the Joe. Remember that commercial they did a couple of years ago. The ne where they were welcoming other teams, had easy listening music, aroma candles etc...... The part they didn't mention was, that was the home locker room!

You can never have enough talent and you can always make trades. Players also get hurt, hold out, retire, etc..... Also not everyone of our prospects is going to make it. That never ever happens.

I understand the "rumors". We all see those and post/repeat the rumors all the time. But there is no reason for them to buyout Myers. They have plenty of cap, they could trade him for more picks/prospects, or they could keep him. Go look at Chara's career. he didn't become a top Dman until his late 20's. For whatever the reasons Dmen take longer in general to develop, and really tall guys like both of them take the longest. If buf is going to use their last buyout it would much more sense to use it on erhoff and get out from the last 8 years of his contract.

Let Mantha be our trade deadline pickup.

Myers isn't going to get bought out. He is still very young and played much better the second half under Nolan. Now Letang. I could see the Pens moving him and keeping Nikwhatever his name is. Whatever happened to Smith or Jones......geez...... A Dekeyser-Letang pairing would be very good overall. Yes there would be some WTF moments on D once in a while. But 90 points from the pair would be normal.

No he isn't coming back. Also the issues we have are not do to coaching, those are do to lack of talent. Coaches only work with what they are given. BTW, how about that melt down by nemmi. You know one of those "great" goalies that is supposed to be better than Howard...... I could have sworn that half of this board believes that great goalies never have bad runs or playoffs.......

We were 16th is goals allowed this year. Bottom half. Our best defensive Dman has played all of 90 NHL games. But this isn't an either or thing. You need both. How good would a defensive be made up of 6 Letangs? Not very. But man could they move the puck. Flip side, how good of a team would you have with-pick you best stay at home guy? That is the Devils model and it does work.

One of the thoughts hinted at by some is, we just need an offensive defensemen. Some of us remember Coffey. Maybe the best offensive dman of all time. As good as he was with the puck, he was that bad without it. Dman have to be able to play D. That is their job first and foremost. On that front we don't have a great D as it is. Kronwall and E and average. Dekeyser is already the best defensive BLer we have. Smith is below average. Kindl terrible. Lashoff is of vs big strong teams, but struggles vs speed. But Is ok as a 7th. if we can find a guy that is good in his own end and give us 30-40 points, that is who and what we need. Which is why I am for Petry. he plays both ends well. Might be the cheapest to get out of the list I posted.

Buppy, the chance that all 3 of those guys make it is very small. That is what history shows. It would be a terrible thing to have to much talent......

We can buyout TooToo anytime. We don't have to waste our compliance buyout to do it. 1.9 million doesn't matter to us-we have plenty of cap space. Buy out FRANZEN!!!!!!!!!!!! He is dead weight.

Pepin is hard to figure. He is 6-2/240ish, RHed, has played C and RW in junior. I have seen him taken anywhere from the 3rd through the 5th round. Wouldn't be a bad fit. Him and Tuch would give us plenty of size on the right side.

LW I am on th Petry bandwagon. Him and DK would be the top pair in about a year. They both move well, handle the puck well, block shots, and have decent skill that is improving. Now 2-3 years down the road I wouldn't worry about. First all the prospects have to develop. There is 0% chance they ALL do. Also at that point Kronwall will be 36/37 and may vry well need to be replaced. Same for E. If Petry, D, and Smith are all here and playing well, that still leaves up to 4 spots open.

Just wondering which everyone thinks is the better option.

Ok 3 names per round that should be there, that I like: 1st round larkin 6-1/195 C Tuch 6-4/225 RW Perlinin 6-3/205 LW 3rd round: Mistele 6-2/185 LW Kraskovsky 6-4/185 C Lotz 6-0/190 G 4th round: Starrett 6-4/195 LW Wolff 6-4/195 D Jarros 6-3/205 D 5th round: Magyar 6-2/195 RW Vejmelka 6-3/200 G Mantha 6-4/225 D 6th round: Harms 6-0/175 RW Revel 5-11/175 C Lindblom 6-2/185 LW 7th round: Bagenda 6-2/195 LW Faith 6-3/210 D Stevens 6-3/185 C Now the last 2-3 rounds will most likely get filled with some guys that most of us have never heard of the Hawken has found overseas. But need some names to fill the draft out.

There are a bunch of different threads about what to do vis UFA, trades, draft etc. Ok cool. But we need a clearly laid out starting point. So it took a little time, but here is the DRW organization-from the player side, as of today. No the lines are not set, just a means of accounting for everyone. DRW: Z-Datsyuk-Franzen Nyquist-Weiss-Abby Jurco-Sheahan-tatar Miller-Helm-Glendening Andersson TooToo Kronwall-Ericsson Dekeyser-Smith Kindl-lashoff Almqvist Howard McCollum Extras: Emmerton Callahan Feraro cap: 59 million +/- Money to spead: 12 million +/- GRG: Mantha-Athanasiou-Nastasiuk Nestrasil-Hudon-Frk Tvrdon-jarnmark-Pulkkinen Parkes-open-Campbell Ouellet-Sproul Backman-marchenko Nedomlel-Jensen Mrazek Coreau TW: no forwards McNulty-Nicastro Wheaton Paterson Guys still in college/juniors/overseas: McKee, De Haas, Pope, Bodin, Lil Tuzzi Players signed to pro contracts: 49 if my math is correct. max is 50. Some other notes. 1. if Emmerton, Callahan, and/or Feraro leave, that saves about 2 million. 2. Plenty of money to spend on UFA or pick up contract via trade 3. Organization has plenty of Dmen. To bad most are under 25 with little or no NHL experience. 4. G talent and depth is great! As the roster changes in the off season, I will update.

Spot on DD. TBH I don't care which we do. Pick one, be open and honest about it, and then go 100% in that direction.

Guys it is April 29. Have the RW's even finished there post season reviews yet? Just a hint, don't ever put to much weight in what any GM or coach says publicly this soon after a season. It means nothing. Lets see where things are at say July 15.

Kulemin is a very good player that if we have to fill in a spot after I trade, I would be all for. Right now we don't have any room. But if say a Tatar has to be moved to make a deal, signing him would be good backup plan. Now what I would want to sign him for and what he wants would be 2 different things. I wouldn't go longer than 4 year or more than 3 million per.

You may not like it, but he will be in that area for his next contract which is this summer. He is a RFA. We have plenty of cap space. bad GMing would be to sign him to a 8 year 40 million contract like many teams do. Do a 3 year transition contract, which Holland gets a lot of credit for around the league. yup. Add to it Babcocks coments about being a soft out, and yeah the streak means less and less. As always there is 1 champion and 29 first losers.

I agree with your thought process to a point. Time for some big moves. Yes that means taking.......RISKS! But we are not going to go out and turn over 50% of our roster in 1 year. No team does that. As for some of your moves, no thanks. There are better options out there and some of your salaries are way off. Buyout Franzen-yes. No thanks on Alfie-he is done. Mrasek isn't ready and Broduer can't do it anymore. Howard is better than both right now. Not a fan of Boyle either. he is soft. Dekeyser will be making a lot more than 1 million next year. Somewhere in the 2.5 million range.

Beg to differ. Adding guys like Nyquist and tatar is much easier-as the wings have proven time and time again. We come up with guys like them every year. Finding guys like Lucic is the hardest thing to do and most costly to trade for. If you took the 2 of them and tried to get Lucic, Kopitar, backus, etc.... in a deal, the answer would be no everytime.

Some are making fake arguments. I don't care what Franzen's cap hit is. The question is can he play/produce? Would Cleary be a better player if we only paid him half a million per year? Would datsyuk be a worse player if we only paid him 1 million per year? Of course not. What a player gets paid has nothing to do with how a player currently plays. The big money contracts are awarded in all sports on things you have already done. When Franzen was signed 4 years ago-or was it 5?, the contract was an attempt by the classy Red Wings to cheat the system. Yes I said cheat the system. of course everyone was doing it, but trying to get around the rules is cheating. Back to the point. At that time Franzen had just had his career year and an awesome playoff run. The thought process was a good one. Sign a top performer to a long term deal that benefits the team. makes sense. Since then Franzen has not benefited the team. Now he is not only not benefiting the team, he has become a negative. Every year he has to be coddled and have his hand held because his feelings get hurt or whatever it is. Now we have 1 chance to get out from under this giant rock that is weighing us down. he is not a leader, he is a bad influence on the young players-lack of effort/drive/focus, and doesn't or can't do what we need him to do. He isn't a top 6 power forward and that is the role we need him to perform. It is time to part company. Buy him out and get rid of the cap hit worries.

Ritchie would be great, but I expect him to be gone at 14/15. Tuch is the best choice at that position for a forward. larkin could/should also be there if we choose to go with a C. Any would be helpfull down the road. Tuch and LArkin will be closer to 5 years before we see them in Detroit. Both are committed to play college hockey-figure 3 years there, then a year or 2 in the minors. Ritchie would be faster to the NHL. 3 years in the minors then should be up/ready to go.

No one is debating that great teams are great at scoring and at defense. We are not a great team, nor are we great at O or at D. The question is, which do we fix first, and at what price?